Kept Secret
by Sunlight through Leaves
Summary: Sometimes the only way to get something you need is to pretend to be someone you're not and steal it. What happens when someone you know catches you in the act? Kakairu, some Sasunaru
1. Meeting

Title: Kept Secret

Anime: Naruto

Pairings: Kakairu, Sasunaru (sortof)

This is not ((NOT)) a part of the Running series that I have spent waaaay too much time writing. This idea popped into my head the other day; it's barely formed and will probably dissolve before I've gotten two sentences into the next chapter, so forgive me in advance.

I hope the first part is enjoyable, though I'm not sure….

OOOOOOOOOOO

With an irritable groan, Tsunade twisted her foot back and forth, trying to loosen the chain links that bound her ankle to the lower leg of her desk. _Honestly, this is totally uncalled for!_ Even though she was notorious – at least to Shizune – for slacking on her work, she'd finally reached the mission files that were classified as top secret or higher, which meant that she was actually starting to enjoy reviewing the trials and tribulation of the previous Hokage. The binder let out a sharp snap as she closed it, and then she paused for a second, taking a long draught of tea before pulling the next one off the stack.

Tsunade stopped as the next binder slid to a halt, resting against her elbow. The dark brown cover, unlike all of the others, was stamped with the letters 'FOUO' – For Official Use Only. It was a method of classifying materials without actually classifying them, and did not belong with the stack of S-rank mission reports that rested on the blotter in front of her. Curious, she turned the pages back and studied the information enclosed, trying to understand how it had gotten mixed in with the others.

The first two pages were standard for the bound mission reports – the request for the mission and a description of the mission itself from the clients. The next page was blank white, except for the block red letters that marked the rest of the file with the highest classification. Tsunade's brows drew down in confusion. This was the first time she'd seen a file where the mission description wasn't classified, but the actual information about which shinobi had taken the mission and how it had turned out.

She turned the red-marked page over with growing interest, feeling surprise radiate from the center of her heart as she read on. "Unbelievable…."

OOOOOOOOOOOO

In the confusion following the Sandaime's death, a few D-rank missions were passed off onto the remaining genin teams to show that Konoha's strength had not diminished, despite the tens of dead shinobi whose names had been added to the memorial stone.

As such, the early morning light found Naruto leaning against the light green, painted doors, yawning hugely, his eyes barely open. He straightened sharply as a familiar, black clothed figure made an appearance in the center of the street. Naruto shifted so that his back was to the other person, not wanting to make eye contact. Neither he nor Sasuke had spoken to each other since the fight on the hospital roof, and he certainly wasn't going to start now. He still didn't know what Kakashi had been thinking when they'd been given this mission.

_In the Hokage's office…_

'_You're going to travel to the eastern outskirts of the village and help them repair some of their buildings in the forest where they keep their livestock.' Tsunade read the expression on Naruto's face and sighed quietly. 'I know this is a low level mission, but we have to make it look like we're still at full strength, and that means we need to take on even the smallest missions.'_

_Kakashi stretched forward his gloved hand to receive the mission scroll and glanced at it briefly before looking back up at Tsunade. "Only me and Naruto?"_

"_Sakura as well, but she couldn't make it to this meeting. She's helping at the hospital right now."_

_The Jounin tucked the scroll into the pocket in the front of his vest, "I'd like to take Sasuke as well."_

_Tsunade's eyebrow twitched slightly. "Alright." She raised a single finger and pointed it at Kakashi. "If you think it'll…."_

"_Yes." The word was said with a sudden finality._

_Naruto gaped back and forth between the two adults, attempting to understand the subtext. He finally gave up, not interested in hearing more about Sasuke – he'd heard enough about the Uchiha in his life. It was at that point that he noticed that Iruka was not seated in his customary spot on the left hand of the Hokage at the mission desk. _

Sakura landed on the ground next to Sasuke with a shout. "Ohayo, Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke ignored her and stood with his arms crossed in front of his chest and glaring out at the general surroundings.

When Kakashi appeared in the midst of all three of them, he winced at the tension in the air, which was so palpable it could be cut with a knife. He could only hope that getting Sasuke out of the village and back on missions would help him deal with his feelings of inferiority.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Fine fingers twisted loops of wire around a smooth cylinder of layered paper that was covered in black writing. The shadowy figure stood and hung the lettered paper over a nearby tree branch that was close enough to the village to cause alarm, but not nearly close enough to cause any damage.

The hands folded together, forming a seal to gather chakra, then two fingertips touched the end of the wire, starting the ignition process. The wire would burn slowly down to the end, before lighting the main incendiary. The writing on the outside of the paper was there to provide the needed explosion and to make it slightly more interesting than it usually would be. The wire would also burn into the tree limb, providing more heat to the paper. Whereas the explosions would usually result in flashes of bright green light, the added heat would cause a broader spectrum.

The figure smiled slightly and stepped back, brushing its hands together and admiring its handiwork before vanishing back into the streets of the village.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Kakashi followed after his students with Icha Icha blocking most of his view of the street. Everyone around here was in a hurry to get somewhere, it seemed, and he was glad that their job would get them out of the center of the village. His lazy personality would feel much more at ease around people who were more laid back.

Something bumped his elbow, shaking the lines of text and making him lose his place. He spied the culprit out of the corner of his eye; a young woman, with long black hair and downcast eyes hurried along the side of the street, a basket tucked firmly under her arm and against her hip. Kakashi shrugged mentally, just another person who clearly had somewhere to be and didn't seem to want to slow down and enjoy the journey.

OOOOOOOOOOO

The woman glanced up and back down quickly when she realized who she had encountered. She focused solely on keeping her eyes down until she was out of his peripheral visions, afraid that if he saw her face he might read some of her intent. But even as she worried about the presence of the Copy-nin – she was sure she was supposed to be the only shinobi here – she was counting silently in her head.

_25…24…._

She ducked under an overhang and into an adjoining side street.

_18…17…_

The nearest door led through the back of a restaurant that brought her out onto on of the parallel streets to the one she had been on scarce seconds before. And her quarry lay on that street.

_13….12…..._

She halted in the doorway, just inside the threshold as she counted down the remaining seconds.

_4….3…._

She leaned back, easing her hand against the door so that she could see out the narrow crack to watch people's reactions.

_1….._

OOOOOOOOOOO

Naruto actually jumped straight off the ground when a large explosion rent the air. All four leaf-shinobi spun on the spot to see continued explosions from the very eastern edge lighting up the mid-day sky. Flashes of red, blue and green light appeared over the houses, and people reached up to shield their eyes. Kakashi blinked rapidly, seeing after images, and glanced around at the villagers, who remained frozen for a heartbeat, and then all raced forward towards the sight of the commotion.

Sasuke was staring out at the location where the explosions occurred. "Exploding note." He stated it with no emotion.

Sasukra nodded decisively, once, and Naruto just nodded fervently.

"Let's go." Kakashi told his team, and they took off, following the throngs of people.

As they crossed one of the side streets, Kakashi happened to glance over and caught sight of a single figure in the next street over running fast – and in the opposite direction as everyone else. "I'll catch up with you there." He called out to the genin. Naruto muttered something about useless jounins, but Sakura elbowed him, knowing full well that if Kakashi was leaving them right now, it was for a good reason.

The Jounin turned completely around, leaping up the side of the nearest building and onto the roof in one graceful movement. His single eye continued to track the unknown figure as he raced along the rooftops. His prey reached the edge of town before he did and disappeared into the surrounding forest. Without a second thought, Kakashi leapt from the edge of the last roof onto an overhanging bough.

When the figure came into sight, Kakashi was shocked to realize that it was the same woman who had jostled him earlier. Her hair streamed out behind her as she ran, held back in two braids that were bound with brown leather. The pale-blue yukata that she wore was hiked up around her legs to allow her to run faster and clutched desperately in her arms was a large scroll that looked akin to the Scroll of Sealing that Naruto had stolen all those years before.

Kakashi dropped down behind her, grabbing her by the back of her collar, and she was forced to either stop or attempt to choke herself with the front of her dress. When she stilled, Kakashi pulled her around roughly by her clothes and opened his mouth to demand an explanation as to what, exactly, she was doing. The woman's body was limp, complacent, and he figured that she had just taken advantage of the confusion and was now going to give up the scroll with no argument.

Without warning, she stiffened and brought her heel down sharply on his instep. Kakashi stifled a yelp of pain, but his grip slackened for just a second and with surprising speed, the woman tore herself out of his grasp and took off out of the clearing that he'd captured her in.

Snarling under his breath, Kakashi dove forward and grabbed her left forearm, using a taijutsu technique that the Yondaime had taught him years ago. His fingers dug into pressure points between the bones in her arm, and he heard her startled grasp as her whole arm went to sleep. It would be numb for almost a full day, bruised for several weeks, and would hurt like hell for a month. She dropped the scroll with a cry of surprise and pain, and he released her arm, watching it fall limply to her side.

As Kakashi bent to recover the scroll, the woman tossed a smoke bomb at their feet and disappeared into the cloud of purple smoke.

He waved it away irritably with a wind jutsu and swore colorfully under his breath before returning to the village and bringing the scroll back with him. But as he ran, he couldn't help but remember the woman's eyes, which had looked up at him before she'd escaped. They looked so…familiar.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!"

Kakashi stared, open-mouthed at the Hokage. What was he thinking? He was thinking that this woman was stealing, and she should have been stopped. Obviously.

"Of course…she…was stealing!" Tsunade rose from behind her desk, pinching the bridge of her nose in general frustration. "Do you have any idea how long we've been trying to get our hands on that scroll?! And now – no thanks to you – they're going to have it under guard, and that means it will take more time to steal it, and we can't spare…her… for that long."

Kakashi's brows drew down as Tsunade stumbled, once more, over the pronoun.

She yelled at him, almost incoherently, for another ten minutes before tossing him out of her office.

Kakashi closed his eyes and pictured the woman again – seeing narrowed, dark purple eyes beneath pitch-black bangs. She was a Konoha kunoichi? He knew that he had never seen her before, and she had worn no article of clothing that would identify her as a shinobi, not a headband or even a mask, like ANBU or the hunter-nins wore.

Tsunade ripped the door open – literally, leaving Shizune holding the remains of it just inside the office – and leaned out. "Since you're here; I need you to give this message to Genma."

Kakashi took the rolled message, hiding a sigh and slipped out of the building, stretching his chakra out to find Genma.

OOOOOOOOOO

Genma looked up when Kakashi dropped into his apartment through the open window. "Yo, Kakashi-san. What do you want?"

Kakashi didn't respond, his forward motion stalled completely as his gaze stopped on the picture that was propped up on Genma's corner table.

"Oi." Genma waved his hand in front of Kakashi's face. "What is it?"

After reaching into his vest to retrieve the message, Kakashi handed it over to the other Jounin. "The Gondaime wanted you to have this. Who is she?"

"Eh?" Genma took the message and then followed Kakashi's pointing finger. "Oh." He chuckled, as if at a good memory. "Yeah, she was after your time at the academy. She wasn't in my class, but she showed up in everyone's class photo from about a year before me and Raido until about two years after us. No one knows who she is." Genma smiled, and gazed down at the picture, looking directly at the smiling, purple-eyed, black-haired girl who was leaning in over his shoulder on the very left edge of the picture and grinning impishly at the camera.

"Huh." Kakashi made a soft sound in the back of his throat. It was rare for a village to have shinobi that no one even recognized. She didn't even look like she could be the sibling or child of anyone in the village.

"Weird, isn't it?" Genma shook his head to emphasize the statement. "Everyone from those classes called her 'Hisoka.' And there was a big bet going on for people to find out who she was." He shook his head slowly. "No one ever did though."

OOOOOOOOOO

Back at his apartment, Iruka hissed as he cradled his left arm against his chest and balanced the tin of salve on his knees. Feeling had finally returned to his limb this morning, much to his relief - he had been afraid he was going to loose it for several hours – but even so, he could barely move his fingers without blinding pain shooting all the way up to his shoulder joint. To make matters even worse, a line of finger-shaped bruises lay across his entire forearm, which meant that, despite the extreme heat outside, he was going to have to keep his sleeves rolled completely down for awhile.

Luckily, school at the academy was cancelled for the time being as they tried to repair the village, so he didn't have to worry about awkward questions from his students about why he wasn't moving his arm.

But that didn't make it hurt any less.

He sighed and dropped his forehead onto the table in front of him, using his good hand to slowly and gently massage the salve into his aching muscle. It was times like this when he wished he had been able to perfect some technique other than the henge.

OOOOOOOOOO

AN: Hisoka, according to the Japanese name dictionary that I found it in, means secret. (If this is wrong, please let me know. I'd rather change it now than look stupid for the rest of eternity) It's also a unisex name, because I just couldn't be that mean and give Iruka a really girly name.

Please review. I don't know if I like this or even if I should keep going, or just scrap it and start over again.

((I promise if I continue, there will be Kakairu goodness, I'm just backing up and coming up with a new way to get them together))

Sunlight through Leaves


	2. Planning

Oh my god….I'm so sorry this took so long! I really had most of this written, I've just been swamped and haven't been able to finish the chapter. However….da da DA! I do have the story planned out – shocking, I know – so the rest should go a little easier.

Thanks for the reviews. I hope that people like this!

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Crouched on the eave of one of the taller roofs, Iruka was grateful for the cloud cover; it meant that he didn't have to worry about hiding his shadow just in case any of the guards happened to glance up across the alley and over the storm drain to where he was nudged up against the ornamental decorations on the edge of the roof. Iruka leaned out, watching the guards below, and when they turned back to continue along their route, he eased his way forward, carefully picking his footholds to avoid kicking a loose tile over the edge. Shattering pottery tended to get people's attention.

His objective was now held in an enclosed room with three or four guards keeping constant watch. Even so, getting in would be easy; the rest of the family's priceless treasures were held in the same room, despite the added protection for the scroll. As Hisoka, he could easily slip in, delivering back the wife's jewelry from the day. Getting out with the scroll would be a bigger challenge. If he entered the room through the front door, he would be expected to leave the same way. And the scroll wasn't exactly something he could just slip in his pocket and waltz out the door with.

Entering through the roof would be nearly impossible given the myriad of trip wires blocking all normal approaches and the fact that the guards weren't complete idiots – they looked towards the aerial defenses as often as the ground based ones.

The Chuunin shifted into a slightly more comfortable swing seat, idly scratching at the bridge of his nose as he puzzled over this new challenge.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

_Iruka was chuckling incessantly as he crouched down in the corner of his bedroom, pulling out the bottom of a wall panel so that he could store his most recent acquisition. As he stood up, he brushed his hands off on his pants and then retreated into the other room._

_He got the shock of his life when he rounded the corner and ran face first into a soft, cloth-swathed barrier. Swallowing hard, Iruka tilted his head back until he could focus on the other man's face. The Sandaime loomed over him, one hand resting on the brim of his hat; his other hand hung limply at his side._

"_Hello, Hokage-sama!" Iruka grinned up at the Sandaime, keeping his face completely neutral. Just because the Sandaime had shown up at his house seconds after his 'mission' had been completed didn't necessarily mean that the Hokage knew he'd been involved._

_He winced inwardly when the older man put his arm around Iruka's narrow shoulders and guided him towards the couch. When they sat, the Sandaime's hand twitched, the muscle memory in it attempting to reach for his pipe, even though he knew full well that it was no longer there._

"_Hokage-sama?" Iruka focused on making his expression as innocent as possible._

_The Sandaime removed his hat and ran his hands through his hair. "Give it back, Iruka." Iruka silently counted his blessings that the Hokage did not seem angry…yet._

"_Give what back, Hokage-sama?" Iruka blinked blankly up at him and smiled vapidly._

_The Hokage leaned down and grabbed Iruka's nose, and for one insane moment, the pre-genin thought that the Sandaime was actually going to attempt to 'steal' his nose. "I saw you when you were leaving, Iruka." The Sandaime's eyes twinkled under the wide brim of his hat. "It's not usual for you to be outside my tower at 2:30, since class gets out at 2:20, and there's no reason for you to come by there on your way home."_

_Iruka gaped up at him, feeling very stupid, and, not for the first time, realizing that he'd failed at something else._

"_But." The Hokage, released his nose and held up a single finger. "It was not bad for your first try. You even made it past the two jounin who were waiting outside my office." The finger dropped until the very tip of it rested in the center of Iruka's forehead. "You need to focus, Iruka." The finger traced the Konoha leaf symbol, reminding the pre-genin of the lesson they'd learned just a few days ago when their academy sensei had pressed leaves against their foreheads and told them to think about the leaf. "Concentrate on better, or different, means of deception."_

"_Hokage-sama?"_

"_Give me back my pipe now." Iruka was on his feet and already moving to retrieve it before he had made a conscious decision to obey. The Hokage pulled his hat down to shadow his face, and a deep, rumbling chuckled issued from below the brim. "If there ever comes the day that you can steal it and I don't know that it's gone until I go to light up, you can keep it."_

_Iruka watched the scarred fingers retrieve the well-used pipe from his small palms, feeling very confused as the Hokage vanished from his house._

_Once the presence was gone, Iruka's innocent look vanished, and he grinned evilly as he rubbed his hands together. This was going to be fun._

OOOOOOOOOOO

_Focus._ The Sandaime's words echoed around in his head, and Iruka pulled the hair-tie out, running his fingers through his hair to calm his frantic thoughts. The Gondaime had discovered his rather unconventional skills and decided that she'd found a solution to all her problems.

One of the wealthy, non-shinobi families possessed a 'Scroll of time' that had been passed down through countless generations, but had never been used. According to legend, the jutsu's contained within it allowed any shinobi with enough chakra to rewind time for short periods – one, two, three hours – allowing them to do twice the amount of work. The reconstruction of Konoha was in the forefront of everyone's mind, and this scroll, quite possibly, would speed everything up.

Unfortunately, the family that owned the scroll were being royal pains-in-the-but – and several other choice words that Tsunade had used in a very loud voice in the privacy of her office, forcing Shizune to cover TonTon's ears, and eliciting some very intense blushes from the poor Chuunin who was going to 'fix' the problem for her. By just taking what she needed.

_If only…_ He was pacing back and forth, fingers working fervently through his hair. _If only it had worked the first time._

Iruka was startled out of his memories as a very loud, heated argument broke out outside his door. He crept to the door and pressed his ear against it, but try as he might, he could not make out any of the actual words He did, however, recognize one of the voices and could take a pretty confident guess at who the other one was.

Rolling his eyes, Iruka pulled the door open, about to yell at both of them for disturbing his neighbors, disturbing him, and for being general boneheads, but the words died in his throat as he looked down on the two boys outside his door.

Naruto had twisted Sasuke's collar around his fist, almost pulling the taller boy forward off his feet. The other hand was drawn back and clenched. He was clearly in the process of punching Sasuke. This in itself, of course, was not strange in the slightest, but what had shaken Iruka was the expression on Sasuke's face. It was not his general the-whole-world-cheeses-me-off-and-you-will-die-if-you-try-to-convince-me-otherwise look, but just a blank mask that suggested that he just didn't care anymore; that he wanted Naruto to hit him.

"Naruto!"

Naruto gaped up at him, then turned quickly to face him. "Iruka-sensei!" As he spun, his grip on Sasuke shifted, and the raven-haired boy just followed the movement, his head dropping down and hair swaying from side to side as Naruto yanked him forward.

"Naruto," Iruka let out a long-suffering sigh. "Are you coming to ask for ramen again?" The Chuunin heard a knowing tone creep into his voice, and all he could do was shake his head when the Kyuubi boy nodded so fervently that it seemed likely that his ears might fall off his head. "It's only 9, Naruto."

"Ano-sa, ano-sa, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto protested, waving his free hand, which held up food tickets, in front of his former sensei's face. "It's free! And you promised!"

_I promised?_ Iruka blinked stupidly at the grinning boy, trying to remember when he would have done that. His brain refused to function, happily reminding him that he had not slept in the last 48 hours. Two nights ago had been spent sprawled on a roof, listening to and watching the guards. Sleep had escaped him last night as well; he'd spent most of the night pacing back and forth in front of his couch, trying to come up with a good plan to complete this mission. With no luck so far.

The was coupled with the fact that he worked straight through the day to keep up the impression that he was a normal, average, run-of-the-mill, academy sensei. About an hour ago, his brain had decided it was going of to have a glorious time in la-la land without the rest of him, and it was all he could do to keep the rest of various body parts functioning properly. As such, he could not remember when he had promised ramen to Naruto. "Tell you what," He finally managed, running a hand back through his hair to brush the loose ends out of his eyes. "I'll meet you there at noon, okay?"

"Ramen, ramen, ra-" Naruto started to pick up his usual chant, stopped as he turned and realized that he was still holding onto Sasuke's collar and was about a half a step from dragging the Uchiha with him.

Sasuke's expression had finally rearranged itself, and he was glaring down at Naruto's hand. "Let go, dobe."

Naruto's face twisted up, and he looked like he was going to start yelling at Sasuke, but then he just spun around and stalked off down the walkway.

The Naruto had disappeared around the corner and down the stairs. Iruka snagged the front edge of Sasuke's shirt, pulling him bodily into the apartment, slamming the door behind them and shoving the genin down into one of the kitchen chairs. Then he dragged the other chair to the other side of the table, lacing his fingers together and staring at the younger man.

A few years ago, though it felt like a millennium had passed between then and now, back when Sasuke was still his student, a similar melancholy had fallen over the Uchiha. Iruka had tried every tactic he could think of to break through it – and he had quite a few tricks up his sleeve thanks to several years of teaching – but the cloud over Sasuke had stubbornly refused to budge until….

_The dull, rhythmic thunks that echoed in from the courtyard below finally dragged Iruka out of his grading-induced coma, and he rose slowly, stretching like a cat and moved to the window, intending to shut it to close out the noise and return peace to his sanctuary._

_He froze, on hand on the glass. In the open area outside the window, Sasuke was hunched over, panting shallowly, covered in dirt and bruises, a kunai gripped in each hand. The targets in front of him had been turned to pincushions. The pre-genin could barely stand, but he still raised a hand and hurled the kunai almost blindly at the target._

_Iruka decided to step in before someone got hurt._

_Sauke lifted his hand again, and this time the kunai's path deviated from the other ones, and a young girl sprinting from building to building to the right of the practice area looked up just in time to see it headed in her direction. Iruka leapt out the window, hand already reaching into his waist pouch._

_His kunai pinged off of Sasuke's, and in the next instant, Iruka appeared next to the pre-genin, his hand wrapping tightly around Sasuke's wrist to put a halt to any more attacks. Much to his surprise, the Uchiha did not attempt to free himself._

"_Alright." Iruka snapped, his patience with this melancholy attitude reaching an end, especially since Sasuke had clearly become a danger to himself and others. "We're going to stand right here, Sasuke, until you tell me what's going on."_

_Sasuke stared blankly at the ground, then whipped himself forward and brought his clenched fist around to bash his teacher. Iruka grabbed his other hand, bringing Sasuke rocking to a halt. The kid might have been the most advanced shinobi in his class, but he was still no match for the Chuunin. Yet._

_Iruka dug his fingers into both shoulder seams of the oversized coat that Sasuke wore and lifted him a good two feet off the ground before giving him a firm shake and putting him back on his feet. "I asked what was wrong, not for you to punch me."_

_After he'd regained his footing, Sasuke stared open-mouthed up at his sensei, then his face fell and the wall crumpled, and several tear-filled hours later, Iruka managed to escape with his shirt mostly intact, though his black sleeve had bled onto his vest in several places thanks to the waterworks he had never known Sasuke to be capable of. He still wasn't sure he understood the reason behind it all; Sasuke had not been very coherent, but his presence and willingness to listen seemed to have been the key._

_In the end, however, Iruka had understood a few phrases that had rocked him. Sasuke had finally given in to his questioning because Iruka had refused to put up with any shit from him. The rest of village didn't really care about him and never seemed to judge him harshly or treat him like any other normal person because of the issues with his family, and Sasuke seemed to be sick of it. But Iruka had acted like he was just another normal student, and for some reason, that meant that Sasuke could trust him…. Iruka still didn't understand the inner workings of the mind of the last Uchiha, and he highly doubted he ever would._

That Sasuke had come to him now with that same dead expression as all those years ago, made Iruka think that something had gone horribly wrong for the genin. "Alright, Sasuke, we're going to sit right here until you tell me what's going on."

The black eyes trained on him, and Iruka saw a flicker of the past in their depths. Then Sasuke opened his mouth and slowly started talking.

OOOOOOOOOO

"NANI?! We have to take _MISSIONS!_" Naruto's shriek ground on her ears, and Tsunade's brow twitched dangerously. "But the village's still in shambles!"

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, swallowing the urge to swat his student. "Maa, we understand, Tsunade-sama…"

"Look, Naruto. I'm going to explain this slowly, and I'll be sure to use small words so that you'll be sure to understand." The Gondaime had clearly reached her limit. "We have plenty of civilian people in the village to take care of fixing this place up. We need the _shinobi_ to continue taking missions." Her brows drew down. "And you should be grateful, you little twit, this is a B-rank mission!"

Naruto shut up.

Tsunade's gaze wandered over team 7. Sakura hadn't said anything at all. Neither had Sasuke, but that was really an unnatural thing. She was surprised to notice that the dark air around Sasuke seemed to have cleared a little since the last time she saw him. Kakashi seemed to think that throwing Sasuke into continued missions would help him sort himself out; maybe it had actually worked.

The door slid open behind team 7, and Tsunade smiled happily when she saw who had made an appearance. "Ah. Iruka."

"You wanted…to see me…Tsunade-sama?" Iruka's question was punctuated with pauses as his gaze rested on the other people in the room.

"Perfect timing." Tsunade's smile broadened, and Iruka moved forward hesitantly. "We need a fourth person on the team for this mission, and you're the next free person on the list. The rest of you can leave; I'll fill Iruka-san in on the relevant information."

Naruto and Sakura turned around slowly, then stopped when neither Sasuke or Kakashi moved. Sakura grinned at Sasuke. "Come on, Sasuke-kun! We can go get lunch."

The Uchiha's eyes moved to focus on her, and even Sakura couldn't miss the ominous anger in his expression. She wilted, letting her shoulders dropped and grabbed hold of Naruto's arm. "Let's go, Naruto."

"So you have the information, Tsun-" Iruka jumped when Kakashi's hand came down on his shoulder.

"We're leaving at 0500 tomorrow morning. Meeting at the gates." The Jounin spoke into the book that was covering his face.

"Ah…hai…"

Kakashi waved jauntily over his shoulder, "See you tomorrow, Iruka-sensei." Sasuke opened his mouth for a second, his dark eyes shifting from side to side before resting on Iruka, then he snapped his mouth shut and turned to follow his sensei out of the room.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"Let's go!" Kakashi dropped to his knees next to Naruto and Sakura who were securing the retrieved stolen articles onto Naruto's backpack.

"But there are still bad guys back there!" Sakura yelped as several kunai thudded to the ground beside her. Iruka and Sasuke had knocked them off their original course – which had been straight towards her back - and stood ready to counter any further attack.

"Our orders were to retrieve this stuff. We're leaving. Now!"

Sakura looked over her shoulder. "Wait! Wait! Iruka-sensei's not with us."

"What?" Kakashi glanced over his shoulder. _How could that chuunin not handle himself in this situation?_ He was on the verge of sending Sasuke back to get him, but Iruka appeared around the corner with something slung over his shoulder. The Jounin opened his mouth to demand an explanation, but Iruka interrupted him.

"Sasuke-kun, I need your help." Sasuke skidded to a halt, and turned to follow Iruka back the way they had come.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"Iruka-sensei…?"

"Just give me a minute. I'm out of explosive tags, so I need you to light something." Iruka's attention was focused in front of him, and he stopped suddenly in an open clearing and leapt into the air. Sasuke followed quickly. At one of the high branches, Iruka crouched down, pulling the sack off of his shoulder, and ripped it open with a kunai.

"What….?"

White powder poofed out into the air, floating down slowly over the clearing. Several enemy shinobi appeared below them and gaped up at the granular rain cascading down on them.

The lettering on the bag caught Sasuke's eyes, and he almost swallowed his tongue. "Flour?!"

Iruka's voice cut through his astonishment. "Light it!"

"But…"

"Now, Sasuke!"

The genin flew through the hands seals. "Katon ryuuka no jutsu!"

The enormous explosion took him by surprise, and if Iruka had not grabbed him and cushioned his fall to the forest below, he would likely have broken his back when he hit the ground.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Naruto was almost flattened as a roaring noise shook the world around him. "What the hell was that!"

Kakashi whirled around, wondering where his other student and the chuunin where. And hoping that they hadn't managed to get themselves killed. After a few seconds that dragged on forever, they appeared around a bend in the trail. Both looked unharmed, but Sasuke was covered in soot, and his hair was way out of its normal arrangement.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cried out. "Are you okay?"

Sasuke muttered something unintelligible and fell into step beside them, looking very shell-shocked.

"What?" Sakura wrapped her arms around Sasuke's shoulders.

"Flour. Explodes." Sasuke twisted out of her grasp. And Sakura turned to stare at Iruka, as did Kakashi.

"We should probably keep moving." Iruka pointed out.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"Iruka-sensei?" Kakashi leaned over the Chuunin's shoulder as Iruka filled out the mission report. When Kakashi'd offered to do it, Iruka had snagged the paperwork out of his hands, pointing out that he worked the mission desk and he'd seen what Kakashi considered a well-completed mission report and the folders in the mission room did not need any more blood-, mud-, or god knows what else- stained pieces of uniform cloth with charcoal scratches on the back. Needless to say, the Jounin had looked a little bit offended.

"I can finish this by myself," Iruka dug his fingernails into the edge of his scar. "You can go home if you want, Kakashi-sensei."

"Actually, I was hoping to ask you a question." Kakashi flopped down into the seat across from him, doing a fair impression of a boneless chicken, though his right hand was already fishing around for Icha Icha. "But I can wait until you're done."

Iruka swallowed a sigh and continued to write, but something kept bothering him as he tried to concentrate on the paperwork. When he glanced up, he realized that Kakashi was watching him quizzically over the edge of the book. He tried to ignore it, he really did, but there was only so much he could take. And he wasn't making progress on the report. "What do you want to know, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Maa, I've just never heard of a jutsu that changes things at the molecular level."

Iruka looked incredibly confused. "What?"

"That's how you did it, right?" Kakashi continued to talk to the book in front of his face. "Sasuke mentioned something about making flour explode during the mission. You must have changed the flour at the molecular level to make it explosive." His free hand reached for the hitai-ate that covered his sharingan eye, as if he was going to use it. "If it's not a bloodline limit, I'd like to see the hands seals."

Iruka was so tired that it did not – quite – occur to him that laughing in Kakashi's face might not be the best idea, and he snorted before dissolving into uncontrollable chuckles. When he finally got his breath back, he wiped the tears out of the corner of his eyes, and then looked across that table at a very annoyed Jounin who did not see any humor in his question. "Kakashi-sensei, you've spent too much time looking underneath the underneath. Sometimes things are more simple than they appear." Iruka shook his head slowly at the disbelief in Kakashi's expression. "If flour is in a fine mist in the air and a flame is applied to it, it explodes."

Kakashi's visible eye fell. "Oh."

"Honestly, Kakashi-sensei, you can't learn everything you need to know with that eye…." Iruka trailed off, pen raised just above the paper, and eyes focused on the mid-distance between Kakashi and the wall. _That eye…._

OOOOOOOOOOO

"Tsunade-sama!" Iruka burst through the door, without knocking.

The Gondaime let out a startled snort, starting upright and trying to surreptitiously wipe the drool from the side of her lip. "Huh?"

Iruka shoved his disbelief down and pulled the door shut. "I need your permission to involve someone else in the mission."

"What?" Tsunade rubbed her hands over her eyes to clear her foggy mind. "Why?"

OOOOOOOOOOOO

A strange presence shattered his silent communication with Obito, Rin and the Yondaime. Kakashi turned slowly, recognizing the same chakra that had surrounded the woman from several days before. She was leaning against one of the stumps that he'd tied Naruto to a few years ago, her braids twisted up into a thick bun at the base of her head, but this time she was dressed in a normal shinobi uniform, her hitai-ate tied around her upper arm.

"Hisoka." Kakashi turned to face her, shoving his hands deep in his pockets. "Maaa," He started sheepishly. "Sorry about ruining your mission."

Her lips twitched up into the sardonic smile. "That's okay." She moved to stand next to him in front of the memorial stone, and he saw her eyes drop as she said a short prayer under her breath.

"Friends of yours?" Kakashi asked quietly.

She started at the sound of his voice. "Huh?" Then she smiled sadly. "Oh, yeah." Awkward silence closed in around them, and then she grinned wickedly at him. "You owe me for messing up the mission."

Kakashi held up both hands in front of him. "Now, now. I said I was sorry."

"Well," She shrugged. "It's not like you really have a choice." She held out a mission scroll to him. "The Gondaime's sending you with me this time."

"Eh?!" Kakashi had been in the process of fishing Icha Icha out of his pocket, and looked up at her with an expression of complete disbelief.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Ummm… Yup, that's it for now. Next chapter should be up shortly (I hope). Reviews make me write faster! Yes, it's that little button at the bottom of the page. Yup, right there…Now click. And type things. Even if you think this sucks and wish you had the last 10 mins of your life back.

I hope you've enjoyed reading so far as much as I've enjoyed writing. And no, Iruka does not just like turning into a girl, he has a good reason that will be explained shortly. .

…oh, and yes, flour will explode if you toss it into the air and light it. Please don't try that at home, I really don't want to get sued.

Sunlight through Leaves


	3. Dreams

Next chapter.

Enjoy!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The guard glanced down at him, once, but only saw a woman who was somewhere between hideous and gorgeous, and so took no notice of her. His eyes slid off her and focused back on the darkness beyond – and on the bright lights in the adjacent street where the festival had been thriving for several hours now. It was cheery, upbeat, loud, and thoroughly distracting. It meant that Iruka could get in easily, since they were looking for extra help tonight in particular.

Iruka shifted the stack of bowls higher onto his hip and stepped over the threshold. The room beyond was mostly dark, save for a couple of lights in the far corner, and Iruka paused just inside the door and waited for his eyes to adjust. The last thing he needed was the guard rushing in to see what had happened just because he had tripped over an – interesting – bust of the lady of the house and cracked his head on a truly gaudy vase on his way down.

The bowls went up onto the shelf where they belonged, and a short period of rooting identified the location of the scroll – buried in one of the back racks of paper. Iruka crouched down beside it, pressing his fingers together in a seal and let out a small flare of chakra, so tiny that it was completely unrecognizable and unnoticeable unless someone was looking for it. He waited for a response just long enough that his hands were already moving to form the seal again, when a gentle wind lifted the dark hair around his face and a soft pop echoed around the small space as the silver-haired jounin appeared next to him.

"You rang?" He asked, dry humor lacing his voice.

Iruka rolled his eyes and eased the scroll onto his lap, pulling it open and letting it drape over his and Kakashi's legs. "How long?" He whispered, glancing at the door. If he stayed much longer, the guard would definitely notice his absence. While his presence in the store room was only necessary to give Kakashi coordinates to transport himself to – which meant that he could leave now – he was loathe to leave the jounin in here alone. But if he didn't leave soon…

"Done." The scroll was pulled out of his hands and wrapped quickly before being replaced on the shelf. Before Iruka could even get to his feet, Kakahsi was gone.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The man's breath reeked of alcohol, and Iruka wrinkled his nose as the man leaned in, crooning what he probably thought were irresistible pick-up lines, but the slurring made it hard to understand. "Why don't you go back to the festival? I'm sure there'll be someone to entertain you back there." Iruka suggested and gently pulled his arm out of the man's grasp.

"Awww, c'mon baby, we could…." The rest was unintelligible, but Iruka got the point.

"I don't think so." Iruka turned and started to walk way. The man snarled incoherently at the rebuff and stepped forward, intent on yanking Iruka back around to him, but looked decidedly surprised when he ran into a warm, immobile bulk between him and Iruka.

"The lady said no." The man gaped up at the person who'd stopped him, who was clearly a shinobi, and then narrowed his blood shot eyes and peered around the jounin's arm at the dark-haired woman who was studying him like he was something she'd scrape off the bottom of her shoe.

"Hey, get outta the way. We're just having some fun…" The man stupidly tried to push past Kakashi. "Ow!" The man yelled loudly enough that it echoed off the surrounding walls.

"She said no."

"Holy shit, I think you broke my fingers!" The man hunched over his hand and glared up at Kakashi. It slowly sunk through his drink confused mind that maybe he should cut his loses and return to the festival.

Iruka kept his teeth clamped firmly on his lip until the man was completely out of earshot, then hissed, "You think I can't take care of myself?"

"No, I…"

"Idiot." Iruka fought the urge to grab the Jounin and shake him. "What if someone had come out and seen you. We're specifically trying to make sure that the Konoha shinobi aren't seen here!"

"Which is why I came down. If you'd taken him out, it would be clear that you're a kunoichi…."

Iruka paused with his mouth open, pointing his finger at Kakashi's chest. "Oh. Uh, good point."

"Hey! What was all the noise?" The guard's voice could be heard approaching the corner.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Kakashi pushed Hisoka up against the wall, one arm wrapping around her waist, the other hand pinning her wrist to the wood.

"Wh- the HELL are you….?"

"Look." Kakashi snapped under his breath, "I'm not enjoying this any more than you are, but we've got to make this look convincing or the guard's going to start asking questions."

"Not enjoying? Are you saying that I'm….Mmph!" While the woman was arguing, Kakashi pulled down his mask and pressed his lips against hers. He could feel her body go rigid with shock, and then, much to his surprise, her frame started to relax and she leaned into his kiss.

"Hey, you there, I heard a lot of…" The guard trailed off as he saw the shinobi and the servant woman leaning on the wall.

Kakashi pulled away from Hisoka and looked at the guard, allowing his eye to half close, "Sorry, just enjoying the – ahem – benefits of the festival."

The guard raised an eyebrow and looked past the shinobi to the furiously blushing woman in his arms and sneered slightly. "This is private property, but if you just move to the next street over, I'll let you go."

"You're too kind." Kakashi drawled and pulled Hisoka off the wall, looping his arm around her waist and sauntering off down the street.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Iruka tried very hard to keep from wrenching himself out from where he was wedged tightly under Kakashi's arm. While he could admit that Kakashi's plan of distraction worked very well, he had never guessed that the jounin would…would…. _This is insane! He just kissed me…! um, her…!_ He could feel the beginnings of a migraine working its way up the back of his skull to settle somewhere directly behind his eyes.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Kakashi tried very hard to ignore the warm body crushed up against his side. He really hoped that this woman would understand that the kiss was only a ruse; he certainly hadn't expected her to respond. And he definitely did not want to have to explain again that it wasn't her, it was just that women weren't exactly his…type.

The last time he'd done that; it had been with Anko, and it had taken him two weeks to yank all the kunai out of his walls – no small task, considering some of them had been buried clean up to their hilts.

He swore colorfully and inventively under his breath.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Calloused hands ran over his bare torso, and Iruka squeezed his eyes shut and shoved his fist into his mouth to keep from moaning out loud. One hand wrapped around his hand and pulled it away from his mouth, and warm lips pressed against the inside of his wrist.

"Now, now. Don't hold back. It's so much better to hear you cry out."

Iruka's eyes flew open at the sound of the other man's voice. "K…Kakashi? What are you….Aaah!" The hand had dropped below his torso and was doing something incredibly distracting down there.

The dark, pleased chuckle sent shivers down his spine, and Iruka drew a shuddering breath just before a gentle touch brushed against his mouth. Kakashi kissed him softly, leaned back to study him for a second, and then kissed him more forcefully, his tongue darting out, asking for entrance, which Iruka happily gave to him. It had been so long since he'd gotten any…

"Gah!" Iruka sat bolt upright in bed, panting shallowly. He buried his head in his hands, the details of the dream all to prevalent in his mind. He gripped his knees together, curling his legs up to his chest, and braced his elbows on them. "Idiot. Idiot. Idiot."

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

"You don't look like you're getting enough sleep, Iruka-sensei."

Iruka let out a startled shriek and almost fell over the arm of his couch. As it was, the stack of papers still went flying, creating a miniature snowstorm in his living room, with a very amused looking Kakashi in the center of it. "What are you…?"

"You're the one who told me that I couldn't learn everything with this eye."

"I…What?" Now, Iruka was a pro at interpreting half-sentences, bad grammar and statements that appeared to have been made without a general handle on the English language - he did teach pre-teens after all - but it seemed that he had met his match in Kakashi-speak. He tried to puzzle it out, but his brain was not able to sort through the complex meaning, in part because his hindbrain kept suggesting that Kakashi should just jump him already. _Stop that!_

"That trick with the flour isn't the only one you know, is it?"

Iruka blinked in surprise. "Ano…No, it's not…"

"I'd like to learn."

Iruka gaped at the jounin. "You…Really?" _Full sentences, Iruka. Honestly! _He fidgeted his hands back and forth. "I doubt there's much I could teach you that will be better than all the things you already know."

The jounin appeared pensive. "How much chakra does that flour-thing take?"

"Well, none, if you have an exploding tag."

"Maa, then it's useful."

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Kakashi couldn't help but smile, even though he knew his mask hid it, as he watched the expressions play across Iruka's remarkably open face as the chuunin worked to the meaning at the center of Kakashi's statement.

"I guess." He concluded, finally, but looked surprised when Kakashi didn't move. "Now?"

This time Kakashi smiled for real, tilting his head to the side. "Do you have something else you need to do?"

He watched Iruka's gaze wander to the scattered papers. "I guess these can wait…." The chuunin rose slowly and ran his hands over his hair. "I'll get some tea."

Kakashi studied the chuunin's back as he disappeared into the kitchen, and then turned to scan the living room. It was small, but clean, exactly what he had expected, with a picture of Naruto and same picture of Team 7 that he had propped up on a table in the corner. And beside that was….

"Is this the Sandaime's pipe?!"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Sorry it's short, I'm really tired and I wanted to post something since I promised I would have something soon and I didn't manage to keep that ((am very ashamed)).

Will post more soon

Oh, and sorry about the cliffhanger, but if I wrapped things up at the end of every chapter, I'd have no guarantee you'd keep reading, would I? .

Sunlight through Leaves


	4. Memories

Update! Enjoy!

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

_Sarutobi-san, Sandaime Hokage, generally renowned as one of the greatest ninjas in the world, felt very much like smashing some of the various items on his desk. The negotiations between the hidden villages following the Kyuubi's near destruction of Konoha had been going on for quite some time now and were not going well. Which, of course was a bit of an understatement. The Sandaime was actually considering murdering the Kazekage if the other man decided to keep holding up the decisions much longer._

_Somehow, he managed to resist the urge to trash his office, settling for his only vice, and he reached into his robes._

_And encountered only an empty pocket._

_In retrospect, he was grateful that the glass barometer that had been a gift from the Hidden Village of the Mist had also been taken and replaced by a henged flower. Though at the time he was rather miffed when the instrument did not make the delicate tinkling sound of breaking glass when it hit the wall._

_OOOOOOOOOOO_

_Iruka perched on the edge of his couch, leg shaking up and down as he waited impatiently. The Sandaime's pipe had been in his possession for almost four hours now, but the hokage had yet to make an appearance, and Iruka was sure that the suspense was going to kill him. He couldn't live like this, continuously waiting for the wrath of god to fall on him._

_A sharp knock jerked his attention off the window and towards the door. He pulled it open, stepping aside politely to let the hokage into his house. The Sandaime stepped out of his shoes and onto the wood slat floor, and Iruka slipped his hand into his pocket, pulling out the pipe, and holding it at arms length in his flat palm, his whole arm shaking with anger and frustration._

_Gnarled fingers closed around his, slowly bending his fingers down around the pipe, and the hokage shook his head. "No. It's yours."_

_Iruka's eyes widened, and he pulled his hands back, clasping the pipe to his chest, unable to believe that he had actually succeeded after so many failed attempts. "Really?"_

_The Sandaime nodded, smiling with – pride? Iruka hadn't seen that expression since before his parents died. "I thought you'd given up for a while." The pre-genin trailed behind the hokage into the living room, but remained standing while the hokage took a seat on the couch._

_Iruka stared at the pipe still clutched in his hands. "Yeah. I had to work some things out."_

_The Sandaime was shaking his head. "There's just one thing I don't understand. I've had it on me all day, and I know you were in my office." At this, he held up a lopsided flower that looked a little worse for the wear and was missing a couple of petals. Iruka had the decency to look sheepish. "But, when did you take my pipe?"_

_Silence fell in the room, and Iruka gnawed at his lower lip, and then opened and closed his mouth as if he was about to explain, but then thought better of it. He gently set the pipe down on the table next to him, in front of a picture frame that held his class photo. Iruka formed an all to familiar seal that was one of the first jutsu's that any shinobi learned._

_The chakra smoke cleared, revealing a girl who was slightly older than Iruka. The violet eyes remained locked on the floor, one foot hooking behind the other ankle. She was not dressed as a shinobi, but like any of the normal villagers._

_OOOOOOOOO_

_The Sandaime blinked in amazement, remembering an incident earlier that morning when he had been walking through the village on his way to a meeting. This girl, arms burdened with groceries had careened around the corner and crashed into him. She had apologized profusely, and he had helped her gather the scattered items, but he had only looked at her in passing. "That was…" The Sandaime mused. "Shouldn't you have been in class?"_

"_I was!" The indignant, yet feminine protest seemed strange coming from the person he knew was Iruka, even if the outer shell was different. "It was a clone. The one you ran into. That's why…" Iruka fidgeted under the hokage's intense gaze. "That's why I stopped trying for awhile, because I couldn't hold the henge on the clone for very long. And, and it was worse, because I could hold it if the clone was with me, but as soon as we separated…" The girl held up both hands and spread her fingers wide apart in the universal sign for 'poof.'_

_And at that point, he realized why Iruka's henge looked so familiar, beyond his encounter with her this morning, and he glanced to her left to confirm his suspicions. Sure enough, standing behind Iruka in the class photo, grinning like an idiot and giving Mizuki bunny ears, was the same girl who was facing him now. "So you're Hisoka."_

_Iruka shifted again, still refusing to meet his eyes. "It was the easiest way I could think of to check if the henge was still working."_

_The Sandaime chuckled deep in his throat. "Not bad, Iruka-kun. Not bad at all." He stood up as if he was going to leave, but paused thoughtfully. "I am curious, though. Why this particular henge?"_

_The purple eyes finally focused on him, and Iruka gave a broad shrug. "She's generic. She looks like everyone and no one; she's right in the middle of the spectrum, which means there is nothing extraordinarily bad or good to notice, and so there's no reason to notice or suspect her. Shinobi notice other shinobi, so she's a civilian. Men always notice other men, they rank themselves based on who they encounter, but will rarely notice women who are average. Women notice those who are competition and those who deserve pity, but overlook all those in between." Iruka laughed suddenly, breaking the intense seriousness and out-of-place maturity. "I had to experiment a lot to get it right."_

_Feeling his lips tug upwards into a smile as he marveled over how much Iruka had grown in the past few months. His teachers had even commented that, even though he still messed around in class, Iruka was getting some of the best marks on the tests. Having been given a project, the young boy was finding ways to fill his loneliness and the countless empty hours between the time he spent in school. It was impossible to know, now, if this was the right choice, and later the Sandaime would blame himself for turning Iruka into the workaholic he would become, but at this moment, Iruka had finally started to balance himself out. He rested a soft hand on the boy's shoulder, injecting a small burst of chakra into it to break the henge. "I'm very impressed, Iruka. You're going to be a fine shinobi."_

_OOOOOOOOOOOOO_

_Several minutes later, Iruka remained standing in the same place, even though the hokage had left. He wrapped his arms tightly around himself, reveling in the inner glow that came from the Sandaime's praise. The time it took to work out his strategy had worn him to the bone: the overuse of chakra, the intense training that kept him up late in the night, the school classes that were so hard to focus on because he was so tired. But it had been worth it._

_And he hadn't been kidding when he told the hokage that he had needed to experiment. The first time he tried to 'gather' something he was not supposed to have access to, he'd approached the mission desk with the first, male version of Hisoka. Asuma had tossed him out of his ear, refusing to give him the mission reports he was 'supposed to pick up for such-and-such person.'_

_When he'd tried again with the final version of Hisoka, accompanied with much stammering and blushing and confusion. Asuma had taken pity on him and given him what he wanted. And had given the whole transaction no more thought._

_For whatever reason, Hisoka worked. "Shinobi." Iruka whispered to himself, wondering over the words, amazed by the hokage's confidence, considering most of his teachers were thinking about failing him out of the academy._

_OOOOOOOOOOOOO_

Kakashi looked up from the pipe to see Iruka leaning in the doorway, his eyes focused beyond the current moment and a smile playing around the edges of his lips. "Iruka-sensei?" The questioning words brought no response, so Kakashi waved his hand back and forth in front of the other man's line of sight. "Iruka-sensei?"

"Ah. Gomen. I was just remembering…" He set the tea down on the table and moved to stand beside Kakashi. "Yes, it's the hokage's. He left it to me; I've never really been sure why."

Even as he answered, Kakashi watched something flicker across Iruka's expression, but as soon as it appeared, the moment had passed, and the Chuunin smiled up at him, "Well. Where should we start?"

OOOOOOOOOOOO

"You wanted to see me, Hokage-sama?" He stuck his head around the doorframe, trying to hide surprise when the Gondaime was actually working.

"Ah. Yes, yes, Iruka-sensei. Come in." She leaned back, closing the books in front of her.

He stepped inside and pulled the door shut. "What's going on?"

She cocked her head, "You look tired, Iruka-sensei."

"I haven't been sleeping well." That was bit of an understatement. The dream from a few nights ago was rapidly becoming a nightly occurrence and was supplemented by things he noticed through his now daily association with Kakashi, including phrases that the jounin had used, which taken out of context and stuffed into his dream took on a whole new meaning, and just simple gestures, like Kakashi's habit of rubbing the back of his head.

"Bad dreams?" The hokage asked innocently.

Iruka blushed furiously, shifting from one foot to the other in intense embarrassment. _Stop blushing! She does NOT read minds._

One tawny eyebrow arched up, but the Gondaime seemed to resist the urge to comment. "We have a problem." With a sharp sweep of her arm, she cleared the entire desk, tumbling books, empty sake bottles and Tonton onto the floor. The pig had been sleeping underneath one of her medical texts and squealed angrily at the incredibly rude awakening.

She heaved a large scroll onto the now clean surface and unrolled it swiftly. "This is all of the information Kakashi-san took from the scroll. It took several of our top people to break the cipher on it."

Iruka took one look at the expression on her face and realized that this was definitely bad news.

"We're missing a piece of the puzzle." She beckoned him forward, putting her elbow on one corner of the scroll and extending her index finger to indicate the passage she was talking about. "If we've decoded it right – and I've had them check five times now – this part indicates that we need an amulet to help focus the chakra in the right patterns to succeed with this."

After pushing his fingers back through his hair for the umpteenth time that day, Iruka groaned. "Why do I get the feeling that its back in the storeroom."

"Yeah, or they don't have it at all." She admitted. "But we still need to check. If there's any way of making this work, we can use it."

"I understand, Tsunade-sama."

"Do you need Kakashi-san again?" He could have sworn that he saw an evil flicker in the depths of Tsunade's eyes, and he knew he heard her snort into her sake when he answered just a little to fast.

"No!" Iruka flushed, averting his eyes from the chuckling Gondaime, before trying again. "No, Hokage-sama. I should be able to do this by myself."

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Ah, gomen nasai, Kakashi-sensei." Iruka rushed to the base of the tree, tilting his head back to make eye contact with the jounin lounging several meters above the ground. Kakashi tucked Icha Icha into the front of his vest, and smiled brightly at the chuunin.

"Maaa, no worries." Kakashi vanished from the branch and reappeared in front of Iruka. And it's Kakashi, no need to be so formal."

Iruka managed a half-hearted smile. Kakashi had been telling him for weeks to drop the honorary suffix, but he just couldn't bring himself to do that.

"It's not like you to be late." Kakashi offered as Iruka struggled to come up with a response to that.

"I…" Iruka paused, shifting his bag higher on his shoulder and shuffling his feet slightly. He'd actually passed out on his couch; his body had finally succumbed to the lack of sleep an overuse of chakra needed to maintain the henge for several 12 hour periods in a row, but he couldn't bring himself to tell Kakashi that. "I was grading papers. The time just got away from me." He offered up his most disarming smile, and Kakashi seemed to buy it.

"Where are we going today?" The jounin sounded decidedly like a kid in a candy store. Iruka could understand – Kakashi clearly enjoyed training, but studying Iruka's techniques meant learning without the aide of the sharingan, which meant, for the first time in a long time, he actually had to put some effort in.

Iruka patted the bag at his side, shaking his head when Kakashi's eyes lit up. "Follow me."

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Irritated by the presence that had been trailing him for the past few days, Naruto detoured out of the village and came to a halt on the grass beside the Konoha memorial, crossed his arms and declared in a loud voice. "I'm sick of this! Show yourself, or I'm going to drag you out here myself, dattebayo!"

Leaves drifted by his face, but the forest offered up no answers.

"I'm serious! You've got five seconds, and then I'm gonna beat your ass for stalking me!"

Five seconds passed, and then ten. When two minutes had finally ticked by, Naruto's incredibly short patience had worn threadbare, and he was in the process of drawing in a breath to shout another ultimatum when Sasuke's sudden appearance in front of his face deflated his puffed out chest and left him standing with his mouth open.

"You look ridiculous, dobe."

Naruto balled his fist up. _This guy._ No one could piss him off faster than Sasuke could, and he was in no mood to take this kind of shit.

"Close your mouth." Sasuke's face showed no emotion, but now that the other genin was standing next to him, Naruto was sure that it had been Sasuke who'd been following him around.

_You…..you…._ Naruto was slowly wrapping his brain around just what he wanted to say to the Uchiha. Sasuke's presence had kept him from sleeping for the past few nights and didn't even bother to go away when he'd showered, which had made it very hard for him to relax under the hot water because it felt like someone was continuously watching him.

"Close your mouth, usuratonkachi, or I close it for you."

"T-t-teme….!" The rest of his statement was cut off as Sasuke's mouth pressed against his.

The raven-haired boy pulled back. "I warned you, dobe."

OOOOOOOO

Kakashi skidded to a stop and barely avoided running into Iruka's back. If he'd been one of the pre-genin that Iruka usually taught, they would both be in a tangled mess of limbs on the ground. He grinned at the image that produced in his head, but managed to quash the fantasy that almost followed. A fierce inner battle raged between discovering out why Iruka had stopped so quickly in front of him on their way to the training grounds and subscribing to the lewder sections of his mind.

The past few weeks had been more enjoyable than he would admit to anyone save himself in the privacy of his home – and maybe Pakkun if he was feeling incredibly open on that given day. Iruka was a wonderful teacher, and he had learned more about non-chakra-using techniques than he had in his many years of sparring with Gai.

The fact that the chuunin's company was more than pleasant was just a bonus.

Curiosity finally won out, thoroughly trashing the porn-loving part and standing triumphantly over it. "What's wrong, Iruka?" He leaned around the other man's shoulder, and one eyebrow shot upwards. "Well now."

"They're…" Iruka stammered, and Kakashi couldn't help but notice the intense red coloring racing across his cheeks. Sasuke and Naruto stood in the open clearing in front of them; Sasuke was holding onto the Naruto's jacket, pulling the shorter boy into his chest. Naruto's eyes were wide open, but they slowly closed right before Sasuke pulled away. The last of the Uchiha muttered something, then turned on heel, leaving Naruto in the middle of the clearing.

"Oi! Teme!" The kyuubi boy managed to break out of his stunned state and chased after his teammate.

Iruka remained frozen where he'd stopped, eyes the size of saucers, with Kakashi leaning over his shoulder. "I talked to him…. I…" The chuunin gnawed hard on his lower lip, then exploded. "Since when does 'I can't stand him' and 'he's getting better faster than me and I hate that' lead to making out!"

Kakashi started laughing; he couldn't help it. Iruka sounded so indignant, not because the boys had kissed but because one of them – he still wasn't sure which – had the gall to lie about his feelings to him.

Iruka whirled on him, "It's not funny!"

Kakashi straightened up slowly, one hand pressed against the stitch in his side. "You don't approve, Iruka?"

"I never..! That would be hypocrit…" The blush was back in full force as Iruka trailed off his statement.

"Sou ka?" Kakashi drawled, and Iruka glared at him, turned his back on him and stalked off. Kakashi was sure he heard Iruka snap 'jerk' under his breath.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Yay! New chapter. Lemme know what you think or if anything doesn't make sense

Sunlight through Leaves


	5. Discovery

I am a horrible, awful liar. If anyone looked at Nearcracker, you would have noticed that I promised to update this a couple (ahem, several) days ago. And I had most of it written, I just wanted to polish it up!! And honestly, wouldn't you rather wait to read something that's better? 

((tell the truth!))

And enjoy! There's probably one more chapter left to go.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Iruka limped into Tsunade's office, worn to the bone. He literally could not remember the last time that he was this tired. "You wanted to see me, Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade quietly closed one of the enormous books in front of her, folded her hand together and gazed up at Iruka. "How are you doing?" She waited for a minute, but cocked her head to one side when he didn't respond. "Iruka?"

The chuunin swallowed hard. "Do you mind if I sit down?" He smiled gratefully when she shook her head, and he folded himself carefully into the chair. They sat in silence for a few minutes, and Iruka was sure that the Gondaime was waiting for him to actually answer her question, but he managed to keep his lips closed. "What do you need, Hokage-sama?"

He could have sworn that sadness flashed across her face before she answered. "We've found the amulet."

He let out a soft snort. "It's not in that family's storeroom, is it?" He rolled his eyes when she nodded. She leaned around him, shouting for Shizune, who moved through the door, holding a mission scroll in one hand, and Iruka dropped his head into his hands, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

OOOOOOOOOO

Sakura perched on the edge of the bridge railing, glancing back and forth between Sasuke and Naruto. Sasuke sat on the ground with his knees drawn up so that he could rest his elbows on them, his hands clasped in front of his face. Naruto stood on her other side, glancing occasionally at Sasuke, but looking away just as quickly, blushing furiously.

After two hours of this, Sakura was moderately annoyed, and she tapped her foot in irritation, wondering just how late Kakashi-sensei was going to be today.

OOOOOOOOOO

In another part of a village, a small pug sat up sharply as a low cry echoed out of the bedroom. The figure on the bed curled sharply in on itself, fingers digging into the pillow.

_Kakashi shook himself awake to the frantic pounding on his door. He fished around on the bedside table for his mask and pulled it over his head, not bothering to dig out a shirt. The rhythmic knocking slowed, faltered and ceased just before he managed to twist the handle to open the door._

_Naruto stood outside the door with one hand raised to knock on it, head hanging limply and shoulders shaking._

"_Naruto-kun?"_

"_Kakashi….sensei…I…I.." The boy's voice cracked slightly._

What on earth?_ Naruto so rarely cried that Kakashi could not imagine what would have happened to push him over the edge._

"_Naruto?" Kakashi guided him into the living room and sat him down carefully on the couch, watching in amazement as Naruto swiped his face with his sleeve, trying to stave off the flow of the tears._

"_I…I didn't know…where else to go…." The words shook almost uncontrollably._

"_What's happened?" Kakashi could not figure out what might have occurred that wouldn't have been brought to him or the entire village by now._

"_I…Iruka-sensei…"The rest of the sentence dissolved into a cry, and Naruto flung himself into the older shinobi's arms._

_Kakashi sat frozen on the edge of the couch with Naruto clinging to him, heart slamming against the dubious frame of his ribcage. _What about Iruka?_"Naruto? What happened?" The words came out fast. Too fast, but the complete desolation that had struck Naruto panicked him so completely._

"_They…Tsunade-baba…She said that Iruka-sensei didn't…survive…the last mission…I….I…"_

_The jounin did not bother to wait for the completion of the sentence, but scooped Naruto up into his arms, hands flying through the seals to transport them. Sasuke glanced up blankly as Kakashi and Naruto appeared in his living room, but his expression was as empty as Naruto's was tearful, and Kakashi wasted not time in dumping the kyuubi boy beside Sasuke before vanishing._

_The light above the hospital's examination room flashed intermittently as Kakashi strode around the corner, and Shizune looked up in surprise. "Kakashi-san?!"_

"_Is it true?" He demanded sharply._

"_What?"_

"_About Iruka. Is it true?"_

"_I…" Shizune took one look at his face and stepped aside, letting him into the examination room. "Yes. It's true."_

_Kakashi froze at the door frame, looking through the window as Tsunade leaned on the edge of the examination table, her head hanging down, forearms covered in blood. Iruka lay on the table with all the boneless grace of a lifeless body; a myriad of cuts marring his frame, including one horrible gaping wound from which a long wooden pike still protruded._

"_NO!" He vaguely wondered who had shouted, before realizing that it had been his own voice. He pushed through the door, pushing an unresisting Tsunade out of his way to fall across the table onto the cold form on top of it. "How? How could this have happened? He never…He…."_

_Tsunade shook her head silently. "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…"_

"BOSS!" A clawed paw swiped across his face, bringing him abruptly and painfully out of the dream.

Kakashi sat bolt upright, flinging the blankets back and almost tossing Pakkun onto the floor. His heart refused to settle down. It had been years since he'd had a nightmare like that, and it only served to signify how far Iruka had gotten under his skin. The time spent each day had grown longer and longer as he made more excuses to keep Iruka around. Lessons had turned to dinner, and then to tea at the academy sensei's apartment. And now this…

"Yo, boss. You okay?" Pakkun scrambled up onto his knees. "You were yelling a lot."

Kakashi shook his head in an attempt to clear the dream fog, rubbing the heel of his hand into his eyes. "Yeah. I'm okay."

It had taken him years to learn one of the worst lessons the sharingan could teach anyone: that a jutsu could not be unlearned. One old lady in stone had allowed him to copy a foresight jutsu, but neglected to tell him that the jutsu could not be completely ended once it had been used. Every once in a while the jutsu wormed its way into his sleep, providing him with terrifying images of the future. Kakashi would give anything to get rid of that ability.

"You said you'd meet your team." Pakkun pointed out, oblivious to the train of thought his master was going through, before leaping off the edge of the bed.

The worst part of all of it was that Kakashi had never been able to tell what was a premonition and what was just a bad dream.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"Alright, eyes on me!" Iruka's voice cut through the excited babble. "This is a training kunai. It is NOT sharp. Do not even think about taking a sharpener to it, or I will have your head. Understand?"

Wide eyes bobbed up and down as the kids nodded mutely at him. They were far too excited about their first day of real throwing weapon training to risk upsetting Iruka and being sent back to the classroom.

"Good. Now, I'm going to demonstrate once, and then you'll line up in front of the targets."

With that, Iruka flipped the kunai into the air, snagged it by the hilt and hurled it at the target with much more force than was absolutely necessary. He was furious at Tsunade for wasting his time with the stupid amulet mission, which turned out to be a bust anyway. Hisoka was now a mainly permanent part of the family's household, and he would not be able to quit right away, so not only was he going to have to complete the new mission she'd assigned him, but he would still be pulling double shift - working at the academy and working nights as part-time help - and burning chakra at both ends until he could come up with an unmemorable way to remove himself from the family's service.

Not to mention that any sleep he managed to snag was interrupted by not-so-unpleasant dreams that made for interesting, but not very restful sleep.

"Ano-sa, Iruka-sensei? Do we have to break the target?"

At this point, Iruka wasn't entirely sure he would survive.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Sasuke hadn't shifted position for several hours; his attention was turned to several days ago, trying to understand what he had been told.

"_Try to understand." Iruka had started slowly, once Sasuke had explained his problem with Naruto. "For many years, Naruto made no progress. He has tried to be recognized by everyone in the village for as long as he's been alive, but believed that he did not have the talent to be noticed for being a great shinobi. Until he was placed on Team 7, he had no reason to strive to be better, but now... Now, it is not so much the village's impression of him that he worries about. It's yours."_

_Sasuke snorted._

"_I'm serious. Naruto has grown a lot in the past few years, but he still hasn't surpassed you, and you should know that. But he wants you to notice him, that's why he's finally tried to get better" Iruka leaned back, watching as Sasuke's mask cracked and his eyes widened as he realized the truth of what Iruka was saying. "You're the first real friend he's ever had, so cut him a bit of slack, eh?"_

His brows drew down as he thought about it. _Is Iruka-sensei right? Does Naruto really care that much about what I think?_

"Will you two knock it off!" Sakura had finally snapped.

"Demo, Sakura-chan, I'm not doing anything!" Naruto spluttered.

"That's the problem!" Sakura yelled at him. "Start fighting or something! I can't take this silence anymore. Can't you guys just go back to being the way you were?" The fight on the hospital roof had really worried her. Sasuke and Naruto had always fought, but she had never believed they would try to kill each other. Until now.

"It's not my fault!" Naruto shouted.

"I don't care!" Sakura growled.

"But it's not. I don't just go around kissing people by accident…" Naruto's mouth snapped shut with an audible snap at the look on Sakura's face.

Sasuke hid a wince, waiting for the other shoe to drop, watching as Sakura let go of Naruto's shirt, gapped at him, and then vanished off the bridge.

Sasuke rose to his feet and leaned into Naruto's personal space. "What makes you think it was an accident, usuratonkachi?"

OOOOOOOOOOO

Kakashi folded the piece of paper over in his hand, striding quickly towards the village gates, hoping to catch Iruka before he left. The hastily scrawled note had been pinned down on Iruka's desk by a coffee mug with a cartoon dolphin on the side of it and apologized for his need to depart without that day's lesson. The jounin didn't know what he was planning on saying to the other man, but the dream had shaken him so badly that he felt like he just needed to say something, anything.

The figure framed by the village gates took him by surprise, and he ground to a halt.

She turned and looked at him in surprise. "Kakashi?"

The jounin raised an eyebrow. "Are we that familiar, Hisoka?"

She blushed. "Gomen, Kakashi-sensei. Can I help you?"

"Are you leaving on a mission?" There really wasn't any point in beating around the bush. At least that's what he told himself. It couldn't possibly be that he was really panicked about Iruka leaving on this mission.

She nodded. "Just for a few days. It should be relatively simple."

"With Iruka?"

Hisoka gave him a startled look and hesitated slightly before answering. "Yes." One eyebrow arched up. "Why?"

"Do me a favor." Kakashi looked away, out the road and off into the distance. He wondered vaguely if she'd hesitated because he'd asked about Iruka and not her, but decided that he didn't really care. If she couldn't understand that the interlude that night was nothing more than a way to complete the mission, he was not planning on explaining it to her.

"Depends." She said, a slight smile touching her lips.

But when Kakashi tuned to look back at her, the intensity of his gaze sobered her expression. "Make sure he comes home safe."

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Iruka stood completely frozen, dark hair sweeping back and forth across his cheeks in the gentle wind. Kakashi was worried about…him?

OOOOOOOOOOOO

The vendor at the market thoughtfully scanned the crowd gathered around his booth. A very wealthy woman flounced over to the shelves, dragging her husband along with her. A single man was studying the rings on the front table, and a young woman with a scarf held up over the lower half of her face to screen out the dust blowing up along the street was bending over the ancient watches in the far corner. His eyes slid over both women, the young one looked to plain to purchase anything from his shop, and the other looked far to wealthy to be interested in any of the items he had to offer. The man, however, seemed to be searching for an engagement ring, and the vendor put on his best selling smile and moved in.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Iruka watched the owner over the cloth bunched around his neck. He wore a long robe, with a deep cowl that covered his face, with his long hair piled up in the excess fabric at the back of his neck. The outfit was common in Sand where dust in the air could rip holes in your lungs after only a few years of exposure. As the vendor turned his back on Iruka, he slipped around the corner of the booth, away from the watches he'd been pretending to look at to a velvet board attached to the fabric of the tent that had several pendants and intricate necklaces pinned to it.

In the very center of the board, one piece hung behind another. The tiny blue stone in the center was shaped like a lopsided hourglass and was surrounded by scrolls of hammered silver. The entire pendant hung on a worn, tarnished chain.

After sending a furtive glance across his shoulder to check the status of the seller, Iruka unhooked the necklace and placed the required cost on the counter below the display. The mission may have required him to take the necklace without making actual contact with the person selling it, but that didn't mean he was going to steal it. If the amulet disappeared, a wealthy, money-grubbing merchant like this would immediately go to the police. But if he wasn't out any money from the transaction, he was likely to just let it go. Iruka hoped that the theory would hold sound in practice.

He disappeared into the tourist crowd in the street, tucking the necklace into the folds of his robe and brushing long locks out of his face. A small child smiled up at him, waving a partially wilted rose.

"Ohayo, onee-san!" The kid held out the rose, and Iruka couldn't resist changing a few coins with the urchin for the dying flower. It wouldn't matter if the kid remembered Hisoka; people rarely noticed to orphaned children and were even less likely to listen to them.

The kid skipped off happily, and Iruka folded his hands into the sleeves of his robes, setting off for home.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Kakashi collapsed into his chair, heaving a sigh of relief. Iruka was home and safe. Pakkun had reported the information to him only moments before, and he had never been happier that his dream was unsubstantiated.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

"What is it, Kakashi-san?" Iruka twisted as he slid around the edge of the desk, a stack of papers clutched in his left hand, the mission had taken only a few short days, but the work had still piled up. Not to mention that Kakashi's presence brought clearly to his mind the jounin's appearance when he was leaving for his mission. And what Kakashi had said to Hisoka.

His other hand reached up to dig into the base of his ponytail. The damn hair-tie was breaking apart and sharp elastic ends had been poking into his head all day. It was driving him insane. With a quick flick of his wrist, he freed his hair, and the scalp below, from the danger of continuing torment. The dark strands cascaded down around his face, mostly held back by the hitae-ate that was still wrapped around his forehead. Still, a large portion of his hair brushed his shoulders. _Kami-sama, it's getting long. I'm going to have to cut it soon, before it gets completely out of control…. _"Now, are you just here to keep me from doing my work, or…."

Between one blink and the next, Kakashi was standing in front of him, so close that Iruka could feel the mask-strained breath on his cheek. _So fast…._ His heart started to race, and he could tell that his breathing had quickened, but he couldn't seem to slow it down. The papers slipped out of his grasp, and his hand clutched at the edge of the desk. "K-k-kakashi…s…s…s-san?"

A long-fingered, gloved hand cupped his cheek, the fingers burying themselves in his loose hair, and the thumb rubbing gentle circles over the rough skin of his scar. The Jounin's body was almost pressed up against his, and Iruka would have retreated, except that the desk behind him held him in place. Even so, he leaned backwards, trying to put as much distance between himself and the other man, so that he could continue to think coherently. Iruka felt the heat and color rise to his face and, in the depth of his mind, hated himself for blushing so easily.

"Hisoka…" The enigmatic lips moved behind their dark covering, and, though the word was scarcely louder than the breath it was exhaled on, Iruka heard it, and with it, Kakashi's distinctively silver chakra expanded to fill the entire room, overwhelming the dim flicker of golden light that was his own. Iruka's chest rose and fell rapidly, his body trying to fill his lungs.

"Ah." Kakashi seemed to notice his predicament, but did not remove his hand. "Gomen nasai, Iruka." And he stepped back, vanishing out of the room without another sound.

Iruka's knees buckled as the chakra left his classroom, forcing him to grip tighter to the edge of the desk to keep himself upright, and he started to shiver from the lack of Kakashi's body heat. _How did he….?_

"Iruka-sensei?" Naruto stood in the doorway, looking at the Chuunin in askance. "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure." The word came out faster than he'd anticipated, and he swallowed hard before trying again. "Sure. What is it?"

Naruto approached slowly, glancing around, as if checking to see if he had been followed. Then he focused back on his former teacher. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

"Ano…." Naruto was staring at the point where Iruka's neck met his shoulder.

And Iruka realized that his fingers had slipped underneath the edge of his collar and were tugging incessantly at the folds of the shirt he was wearing under his vest, as if loosening his clothing would cool off the fire burning beneath his skin. He pulled his hand free and barely resisted the urge to sit there and glare at the offending appendage. Instead, he snatched up his hair-tie and pulled his hair back out of his face, using the soothing strokes of his fingers to calm his mind. "What is it, Naruto-kun?"

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Kakashi landed lightly in the well-worn fork of a tree the overlooked the clearing where the memorial stone stood. The limbs had been worn smooth and into a comfortable shape from his years of lounging there. Even before Obito – and Rin – he could generally be found in this spot. Though at that time, he was, of course, reading something a little more appropriate for his age. He collapsed down onto the branches, but for the first time in a long time, his hand did not automatically reach into his pouch to retrieve Icha Icha. Instead, he folded his arms and gazed up at the sunlight speckled leaves above him and puzzled over what had just happened.

He had not been able to figure out why Hisoka's eyes had looked so familiar until the moment when Iruka turned to look at him, with his hair down around his face. In that heartbeat, he'd seen through the years of disguise that made Hisoka one of the best-kept secrets that Konoha ever had. He had seen her eyes in Iruka's, seen her movements in the way he moved. He had needed to move closer to be sure, but finally everything was starting to make sense. And he felt a smile tug gently at his lips as he remembered the dark alley behind the storeroom when Hisoka – _Iruka_ – had leaned so willingly into his arms… and his kiss.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Woohooo hooo! I have updated! Hope you like it, and if you do, let me know! And if you don't, let me know!

Sunlight through Leaves


	6. Finale

ARGH! I am sooo sorry that this took me so long. My first classes for my digital design diploma started up and work suddenly picked up and….. Yeah, I know these are excuses, but I am really sorry that I didn't update sooner. 

But here it is! Last chapter! Enjoy!

OOOOOOOOOO

"Hisoka!" The heavyset woman hollered, turning around and shoving the dirty pots into Iruka's barely prepared hands. "Get these washed as quickly as possible and get back here. We need people to tend the fireplace in the great room."

"Hai." Iruka took the dishes without complaint, crossing to the wide row of sinks that lined the back wall of the kitchen, being careful not to bump any of the cooks as he moved past. As he set the pots down, he noticed that his hands were shaking. _I don't have much more time; I've burned too much chakra over these weeks._

_Think! _He commanded himself. _You have to get out of this…_

The sponge fell from nerveless fingers for the second time in a few minutes, and one of his coworkers leaned over to him. "Are you alright?"

Iruka stared at the small, pale hand watching the skin darken and the fingers lengthen, and focused all of his attention on pulling the henge back under his control.

"Hey!"

The loud interruption made him jump, and he dropped the sponge into the water again. "Nani?"

"I said, are you okay?" The woman leaned in peering closely at the face hidden underneath long bangs. "Cause you really don't look so good."

"I…." Iruka had intended to say that he was fine, but suddenly his legs gave out from underneath him, and he only just caught himself on the edge of the sink. It was all he could do to hold onto the illusion of Hisoka.

"Oi, you're not okay!"

"Hisoka!"

"H-hai." The head of the kitchen loomed over him as Iruka gasped out a response.

"Go home. Don't come back until you're better. I will not have you infecting the rest of the workers!"

"I…alright…" Iruka slowly pushed himself into a standing position, pausing for a minute to get his balance before heading towards the door. He tried not to think about how much attention he'd just drawn to himself with that little episode, tried to ignore the absolute silence in the usually bustling kitchen, and focused solely on making it to the door preferably without doing a face plant into the stove in the middle of the room.

"Do you need help?" The woman who'd originally worried about him, asked.

"What do you think, I'm paying you to stand around and gab?!" The shout startled everyone. "Back to work!"

He waved at the other worker, "I'll be fine. Don't worry."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The shadows where the village met the woods beckoned to him, and he slipped into their welcoming embrace, stopping only once he reached their safety.

His hands pressed together. "Kai!" The henge shed from him so fast that he was left with no strength at all, and he sunk to the ground, resting on his forearms to keep from going face first in the dirt. _I can't move._

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Naruto stared fixedly at Sakura's back, refusing to look at his other teammate. Kakashi watched with interest, wondering what had come out of the incident in the woods. Naruto and Sasuke seemed to be even more on edge now than they had been before.

After a few second's thought, Kakashi rubbed his hand across the back of his head. "Maa, it's been a long mission. What do you guys say to dinner at Ichiraku?"

Amazingly, nothing happened. Naruto continued to gaze into space; Sasuke looked like he was plotting Itachi's future destruction, and Sakura….

"KYAAAAAAAAA!" The scream shook all of them. Sakura dropped her pack to the ground and raced forward. "Iruka-sensei!"

Kakashi's heart plummeted, and he made it to the chuunin's side before Sakura. "He's alive?" It was definitely more of a question than a statement. Iruka's skin was pale and clammy, as if he had lain there all night, and the jounin could barely see a flicker of motion to indicate whether or not Iruka was breathing.

Sakura pressed her fingers to Iruka's neck, and nodded in relief after several sickening seconds.

"Why is Iruka-sensei here?" Naruto asked, leaning over Sakura's shoulder.

"I don't know." Sakura blinked in surprise when Kakashi reached out to gently brush the short, loose locks of hair at Iruka's hairline off his face. "Kakashi-sensei? Why isn't he wearing is forehead protector?"

Without answering, Kakashi shoved his backpack into Naruto's arms and bent down, scooping other man up into his arms. "I'm going on ahead. I'll see you three back home."

All three genin brought their arms up to shield their faces from the blast of chakra smoke as he vanished.

In the darkness of the place between the two ends of the teleportation, Kakashi pulled Iruka tightly against his chest, trying to ignore how lifeless the chuunin felt.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

He blinked several times as he opened his eyes, trying to bring the images around him into better focus. Even though his vision was still a little dark, he recognized the hospital room almost immediately; he'd been there a fair amount as a child when some of his pranks backfired on him. The orange blob in his peripheral was new, though, and he turned his head slowly to bring it into the center of his vision.

"K…" He coughed and tried again. "Kakashi-san? What are you..?"

"You passed out." Kakashi smiled brightly at him. "I couldn't very well just leave you lying in the road.

Iruka's eyes narrowed; the last thing he remembered was collapsing in the forest. "When did you find me?"

The jounin marked his place in Icha Icha and set the book on the bedside table, leaning forward to study Iruka's face. "Early Wednesday morning."

"I was out there all night, then." Iruka sighed. "Did anyone else see me?"

"My team, but I think they were more worried about you than they were curious about why you were out there." Kakashi smiled slightly. "You weren't wearing your forehead protector. I assume this had to do with Hisoka?"

Iruka's eyes widened as he was reminded that Kakashi knew who she was, "Kakashi-san, I…" He tried to push himself into a sitting position, gasping as the room spun suddenly, and Kakashi barely had enough time to leap forward and catch him as his eyes rolled back in his head.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Come in!" The voice passed easily through the closed door, crackling with efficiency.

Tsunade looked up sharply when he entered the room. "Kakashi? I don't have any missions for you or your team."

"I know." He closed the door and spread a web of chakra out, checking for other people who might be listening in. "I'm here about Hisoka."

Tsunade stacked the books on her desk with sharp movements. "I'm sorry, Kakashi; I can't tell you anything about her. You must…"

"I know who she is."

Tsunade's brows drew together and she peered at him, as if she was trying to decipher if he actually knew the whole truth.

"And I know how badly these past missions have been affecting her." Kakashi tried very hard not to think about Iruka's dark hair spreading across the pale white sheets when he'd collapsed at the hospital.

"Alright." Tsunade seemed to believe him. "Then why are you here?"

Luckily, he'd had a chance to do a lot of thinking during the day as he sat by the chuunin's side before Iruka had woken up. "I want to help."

OOOOOOOOOOOO

The soft breeze from the open window tickled his nose, and Iruka raised a heavy hand to scratch at it. The chair beside his bed had been empty since he'd woken up, and he couldn't deny the slightly empty feeling that had settled on him when he realized that Kakashi was no longer there.

As his thoughts turned to the jounin, he blushed furiously. Kakashi knew he was Hisoka, so he knew that it was Iruka he'd kissed that night. And Iruka was incredibly embarrassed that he had leaned happily into that embrace. He'd never expected that the other man would ever know who he was, and so there had been no danger in responding – at least at the time. But now….

He just really felt like he should apologize for it.

"Iruka-sensei!" The familiar voice jostled him out of his thoughts, and he looked towards the door, smiling when Naruto came in brandishing take-out bags from Ichiraku.

"Yo, Naruto."

"I brought you ramen!" Naruto declared happily.

"It's unlike you to pay for food." Iruka teased.

"Well, it's kind of a, um, thank you. For, you know…." Naruto blushed, shifting restlessly from foot to foot. "I hope you're hungry."

"Starving." Iruka pushed himself into a sitting position and took the steaming bowl and chopsticks from his student. _I'd wondered if he was actually listening when we talked._

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"_I don't know!" Naruto wailed, throwing himself down on the desk. "I thought it was an accident, but he said…" The kyuubi boy twisted his fingers in his hair._

"_Well," Iruka folded his arms, leaning back against his chair, fighting to keep a smile from forming on his face. "Is it a problem?"_

"_He kissed me!"_

"_But you're not yelling at him."_

_Naruto's mouth hung open slightly. "Ano…."_

"_If it bothered you so much, I'd think that you'd be out there giving him a piece of your mind, eh?"_

"_Well, yeah, but…" Naruto started to protest._

"_Yabbuts have long ears and eat carrots." Iruka respond without thinking, focusing more on evening up the stack of assignments on the desk in front of him._

"_It's not like I didn't…. Wait, what?"_

_Iruka froze, one hand hanging over the dolphin coffee mug that Naruto's class had gotten him when they were still his students. He had unwittingly parroted back something that Kakashi had said to him a few weeks ago. The jounin had been working on a trip wire trap that involved several pulleys and an elaborate release system. After failing to set it up correctly four times in a row, he'd pointed out that at this point, it would be much easier to just leap out and challenge the target to fight. Iruka's protest had been exactly identical to Naruto's, as had his reaction to Kakashi's patently ridiculous statement._

_He looked up at Naruto, hoping that the genin would have just moved on from what he'd said, as Naruto usually did, but Naruto was just standing there looking very confused._

_Iruka waved his hand back and forth rapidly. "Never mind. It's nothing." When Naruto finally opened his mouth to continue his rant, Iruka interrupted. "I'm just saying: the whole incident is clearly bothering you, but you might want to think about _why_ it's bothering you." He rose and rested his hand gently on Naruto's shoulder. "I'm happy to talk to you about this Naruto, but I'd like you to think about exactly what the problem is before we talk."_

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Sitting cross-legged on the end of the hospital bed, Naruto slurped at the ramen, talking around a mouthful of noodles. "And then one of the bad guys came at me, and I totally took him out with the rasengan! It was so cool; you should have seen his face!"

Iruka chuckled softly. Naruto really hadn't changed over the years, but he was finally starting to develop the power to back up his big mouth.

The bright blue eyes sobered suddenly, and the gaze dropped to look at the empty bowl in his lap. "I thought about what you said…"

Even though the silence was awkward, Iruka knew better than to interrupt. Naruto would talk when he was ready, and rushing usually led to the end of the conversation.

"I just assumed it was an accident, but then when he told me…. I didn't know what to think…" Naruto toyed with the bowl, spinning it back and forth. "But I realized after I thought about it that deep down I was really…."

Iruka noticed motion over Naruto's shoulder and glanced briefly towards it.

"I was really happy." Naruto's hands closed tightly around the bowl. "He really cares about me." He grinned hugely.

"Have you thought about telling him that you're happy?" Iruka asked, smiling slightly.

"No!" Naruto's happy smile vanished, and he sunk down into himself again. "What if….what if he…"

"He kissed you." Iruka pointed out and tossed off the strange feeling of déjà vu. And his gaze flickered back to the doorway, where Sasuke stood, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. The Uchiha turned away and disappeared around the doorframe.

"I know." Naruto muttered. "But that doesn't seem to mean anything among adults, so why should I think it means something here?"

Iruka actually laughed out loud. "You've been hanging around Jiraiya-sama too much. It is meaningful between most normal adults." But then his brain happily dragged him back to the dark alley, where he was pressed up against Kakashi's frame. Not only had that kiss been used as a ruse, but it had been given to Hisoka, not to him. And he wondered about the truth in his words.

"Ah, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto was tapping away at the watch around his wrist. "I've gotta go; Kakashi-sensei wants us to train this afternoon."

OOOOOOOOOOOO

If looks could kill, the mirror in his bathroom would be shattered into a million tiny pieces. As that was not the case, all Kakashi could do was glare angrily at his reflection, willing it to do what it was supposed to be doing.

"Boss?" Pakkun traipsed around the corner and let out a startled yelp. "It's you, right?"

"Yeah." Kakashi leaned forward and rapped on the shiny surface, wondering if the thing was defective. This couldn't possibly be that hard.

"What are you doing?" Pakkun asked very slowly, as if he was afraid that he was going to anger Kakashi, or that any questioning would shove Kakashi over the edge of madness. For his part, Kakashi ignored the small pug, leaning forward so that he could see his face more clearly and started tweaking things.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

The woman tossed her long braid back over her shoulder as she made her way to the door. It was too early in the morning for any deliveries to have arrived, so she wondered who on earth could be knocking.

The young man who stood outside the threshold looked familiar, but she couldn't quite place him. The short black hair was ruffled into spikes in places, but falling flat across his forehead. The bright eyes smiled happily up at her. "Ohayo!"

"Can I help you?" She asked as politely as she could manage – she had been taking a nap by the warm stove when he'd interrupted with his loud tapping – and wondered why a kid like him was here.

The boy shoved his hands into the front pockets of his pants, molding his shape into a full-body shrug. "I'm Makoto." He said it as if it should mean something to her. When she looked blank, he rolled his eyes. "Hisoka's brother? Geez, she always says she talks about me. I shoulda known she was lying."

The woman hid a smile at the typical teenage reaction – this kid clearly assumed that he was the center of everyone's universe. "How is she? I tried to walk he home when she collapsed two nights ago, but the boss wouldn't hear of it."

"She's okay, I guess." Makoto tossed his hair out of his eyes. "The doctors say she's got bronchitis or something. They say she needs to rest for a couple of weeks. Yeah, so she sent me over here to let you guys know that she'd be missing work."

She sighed, "That's too bad. They're going to need to fill her spot soon. But let her know that she can always check in to see if there's an opening."

Makoto was already walking away. "Yeah, yeah." He waved his hand over his shoulder.

She shook her head – kids these days. A few weeks later, she would wonder out loud whatever happened to Hisoka. The worker next to her would ask, "Who?", and the black-haired, violet-eyed woman would slowly fade out of her memory.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Iruka groaned, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. He was soooooo bored. Tsunade had confiscated the lesson plans that he'd managed to convince Sakura to bring to him. The nurses were busy with some slightly more pressing matters – one of the ANBU groups had just returned from a mission with a bunch of injuries that bled copiously on the floor, and they were alternately trying to keep the shinobi from dying and other people from sliding across the blood-greased floor.

All he could do was lie on his back on the hospital bed, counting the cracks in the ceiling tiles and wondering when he was going to be released.

A flash of color caught his eye, and he turned slowly to look at the book on the nightstand. He was still amazed that Kakashi had actually left a copy of Icha Icha. But then again, the jounin probably carried at least three different volumes around in his weapons pouch. _He must have been called away and didn't have a chance to pick it up._

Tick.

A quick glance at the clock showed that barely five minutes had passed since the last time he looked. He resolutely turned his head back to the center and started counting spots on the ceiling.

Tick.

If he cocked his head just a little to the right, the orange cover of Icha Icha taunted him from the corner of his eye.

Tick.

And why the hell did Kakashi have to read porn anyway? Why couldn't he have left something that Iruka might actually want to read?

Tick.

But at this point, he'd take anything just to make the time go faster.

Tick.

What was he thinking? Iruka didn't - hadn't ever – read porn, and he certainly wasn't going to start now.

Tick.

But Kakashi read those stupid books all the time. They had to be a little bit entertaining or the jounin would surely get bored. Iruka had learned from the past few weeks that Kakashi had the attention span of a gnat, and Iruka'd actually resorted to snapping his fingers in Kakashi's face when the jounin's eyes started to unfocus. The look on Kakashi's face the first time he'd done that had been priceless.

Tick.

_I wonder what he was thinking about all those times…._

Tick.

"Alright, that does it!" Iruka flipped over onto his belly and stretched his arm out to snag the book. This had to be better than letting his mind run around in circles. He opened to a random section and started to read.

"Maaa, Iruka-sensei, I didn't know your read Icha Icha." The all-too-familiar low voice drawled out from the doorway behind him.

"Gyaaaaaaaaa!" Iruka screamed, red color racing from his neck to his cheeks, and he twisted far enough to draw back his hand, intending to lob the infernal book at Kakashi's head.

But froze in mid swing. The figure standing in the doorway was not Kakashi, even though he was absolutely sure that the voice was Kakashi's.

Rather, the boy leaning against the wall looked so much like the face Iruka saw in the mirror when he wore the disguise of Hisoka that the resemblance was unmistakable. "Who are you?" The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. _What is Kakashi playing at?_

"I'm Makoto!" Both eyes curved upwards in a smile that he'd come to recognize, though it was strange to see it completely exposed on a face that wasn't Kakashi's.

"Makoto?" Iruka almost rolled his eyes at the name choice. "What's going on?"

Kakashi slid the door closed behind him and released the henge as he walked over to Iruka's bed. "They're not expecting you at work anymore."

"What did you do?!" Iruka could just imagine ridiculous theatrics that would destroy his invisibility.

Kakashi scooped Icha Icha off the floor – Iruka had dropped it when he'd seen Makoto – and dusted off the covers. "Well, I said I was your brother. Then I said you were sick with bronchitis and would be in bed for a few weeks. Then they said that you were out of a job, but to come and ask when you got better to see if there were any openings." The jounin ticked off each statement on his fingers, as if he were answering some pop quiz.

Iruka just gaped at him.

"Well?" This time the smile was only indicated by one eye squeezing shut. Iruka could almost picture a tail wagging behind Kakashi's back; he sounded so much like a dog asking if he had done the right thing.

"It's…it's good. Really good." Iruka paused, his eyes closed, thinking through how the whole thing was likely to play out. "I don't think I ever would have thought of that."

The bed dipped as Kakashi settled down on it. "That's because you've been alone for far too long."

Iruka was sitting up in the bed, his knees partially drawn up to his chest; Kakashi had sat down even with his hips, and barely a foot of air separated them. That small amount of air didn't seem to be enough, and Iruka's breath caught in his throat.

"There's only so many options for dealing with a problem when you only have one person."

"Right." Iruka looked away. He should have known that Kakashi was just talking about his missions as Hisoka, but for a brief second there, he'd hoped – desperately hoped – that the jounin's words had referred to something deeper.

Because he was looking away, he missed Kakashi's expression fall, but did notice when the other man leaned back, allowing him a little more space.

"Kakashi…san?"

"Can you walk?"

"What?" Iruka looked surprised. "Yes. Of course."

"Good." Kakashi grabbed Iruka's wrists, pulling the chuunin up with him as he stood up, "Come on."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It took Naruto two trips around the village before he finally located Sasuke. The Uchiha was sitting on the end of the long dock that stuck out into the lake. Naruto slid to a stop, remembering times when they were younger, and he'd always see Sasuke sitting the same place.

But for the first time, he trotted down the steps and out along the planks to reach Sasuke. The other boy whirled around, clambering to his feet when he saw Naruto.

"What do you want, dobe?"

Naruto stopped dead, his confidence suddenly deserting him, and he refused to meet Sasuke's eyes as he whispered, "You said it wasn't an accident…"

"Yeah."

"Did you…did you mean it?"

"I don't tell lies."

Naruto growled. Sasuke knew that he wasn't smart enough to unwrap riddles and see 'underneath the underneath,' so he wished that the genin would just say what he meant instead of talking around it.

But in the end, it didn't matter whether Sasuke had meant what he'd said or not. Naruto'd promised himself when he'd left Iruka's room that he would tell his teammate how he felt.

Sasuke actually took a step back when Naruto pointed a finger directly at the center of his face. "Sasuke! I like you, dattebayo!"

"Hn."

"NANI?" Naruto shrieked. "That's all you have to say?"

"What else is there to say, dobe?" Sasuke shoved his hands into his pockets and walked back along the dock.

"OI, WAIT UP!"

"TEME!"

"Hn, usuratonkachi." Only the fact that his back was to Naruto hid his satisfied smile.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Iruka was so startled by Kakashi dragging him along through the halls of the hospital that he completely forgot about what had been bothering him. As Kakashi pulled the door open at the end of the hall, he opened his mouth to speak, "Kakashi-san, I…"

"Shhh." The jounin interrupted.

"What?" Iruka blinked as they moved out into the sunlight that bathed the hospital roof. He started to ask the question again, and a finger pressed against his lips. After short second when he made no attempt to speak again, the finger was removed, and Kakashi's grip left his wrist.

With a large sigh, Iruka raised his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose as he followed Kakashi farther out onto the roof. He just wanted to apologize and forget about the whole alley incident. Well, he didn't really want to forget about it, but he was sure that Kakashi must, and so he could make like it was nothing. The friendship he had built with the other man over the past weeks was worth more than that.

Long fingers wrapped around his hand, pulling it away from his face and out and away from his body. Iruka's gaze and head turned to follow his hand, confusion racing through his body, but gentle fingers cupped his chin and turned him back to face Kakashi. The jounin had pulled his mask down around his neck, but Iruka barely noticed because of the deep emotion swirling in Kakashi's eye.

Before he could react, Kakashi leaned in and kissed him, pushing him back up against the wall behind him and pinning his wrist to it. Something in the back of Iruka's mind noted that the position was exactly identical to their previous kiss.

When Iruka finally remembered how to breathe and opened his eyes, a smile was playing around Kakashi's lips. "What?" Iruka snapped, struck by the sudden feeling that Kakashi was laughing at him.

"That was…." The pregnant pause only served to make Iruka more nervous. "Much better."

"Well, I….what?" He was already preparing to defend himself – he hadn't kissed anyone romantically in a very long time, at least as himself – but Kakashi's words derailed his thoughts.

"Maa, I know that it was you kissing me that night, but I still see Hisoka in my arms." Kakashi smiled down at the chuunin. "It's much better to be able to see you like this." His hand snuck up to wrap around Iruka's face, thumb stroking the dark scar. "You're so adorable when you blush."

That statement only served to intensify the blush already spreading across Iruka's face, and he buried his head in the only available surface – the front of Kakashi's vest – to hide it.

Kakashi chuckled and pushed Iruka back. "And besides, I just don't go for the whole…breast thing." His hands showed exactly what he was talking about, making a gesture in front of Iruka's decidedly flat chest.

The blush deepened even farther. "You…you..,.you pervert!"

"You like me anyway." Kakashi turned away, heading for the door that led back into the hospital.

"Yeah, I guess." Iruka managed to tease back, laughing when Kakashi pouted. The laughter subsided into comfortable silence as the jounin's fingers curled around his, pulling his hand into the gloved one.

Kakashi was the first to break the silence. "Do you know how long it took me to get Makoto to look right?"

Iruka shook his head. "You're a jounin; it couldn't possibly have been that hard."

"The third time I tried it Pakkun told me I looked like a fruity version of Gai." He paused to consider that statement. "Fruitier, I guess. What?"

Iruka had pressed the back of his hand against his mouth, but even so snorts of laughter were escaping around the edges.

"Hey! It's not that funny!"

After a few minutes, Iruka managed to straighten up, one hand pressed against the stitch in his side. "Sorry." Another snort. "I just…The imagery is just too amusing." He turned to Kakashi. "So, now what?"

"Now we bring you back to the hospital room before Tsunade finds out I got you out of bed and castrates me."

"That would put a damper on things." Iruka muttered.

"Sorry, what was that?" Kakashi's eyebrow arched upwards.

The cursed blush was back, and Iruka looked quickly away. "Nothing. Nevermind. I…" He let out a startled yelp when he was pushed back against the wall again, strong hands dropping to rest on his hips.

"Were you thinking about doing something that requires me to be…whole, Iruka-sensei?"

"Not, not really." Damn. That wasn't what he'd meant to say at all.

"Not really?" Kakashi echoed, and Iruka could practically hear the gears turning in Kakashi's mind as he tried to figure out what the chuunin had been thinking about. "Wait. Last week when I came to find you at your apartment, you looked awfully flustered when you opened the door. And you'd been what…sleeping?"

Iruka's gaze flickered everywhere but on Kakashi's face. _He can't possibly figure it out._

"Were you having sex dreams about me, Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka shook his head frantically, but the deepening color of his face completely contradicted his silent statement.

"Pervert." Kakashi's lips curved up in a predatory grin.

"I am not!" Iruka spluttered indignantly, as the jounin's hand tightened around his wrist and pulled him off the wall and in against Kakashi's side as they walked back towards the door.

"Of course you're not."

"Kakashi!" He noticed the other man smile and was surprised to notice that he'd left off the honorific.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Shizune flipped through Iruka's chart as she walked down the hall of the hospital. Tsunade was busy in meetings that morning, but Iruka only needed a check up this morning, and he would be able to go home. She wasn't going to make him wait any longer. Besides, the nurses were giving her a hard time because Kakashi wasn't abiding by the visiting hour rules and had been tossed out on his ear at least three times since Iruka had arrived. They were begging her to let Iruka go.

She slid the door open but only made it a couple of steps inside before stopping. Iruka lay on his side curled into a ball under the covers. Kakashi lay on top of the covers, spooning up against the dark-haired chuunin, his hand intertwined with Iruka's and his face buried in Iruka's shoulder, half-covered by the other man's loose hair. She sighed. They really needed to get Iruka out of here before Kakashi got seriously in trouble for breaking the hospital rules. She'd check back in a couple of hours.

As she was closing the door, she heard a slight stirring from the room inside, and then:

"What the hell are you doing!" Followed by a thump. She could only assume that Kakashi had been tossed onto the floor.

"Maaa, do you have any idea how uncomfortable that chair is?" She grinned, picturing Kakashi flat on his ass on the floor, sheepishly rubbing his hand across the back of his head.

"But anyone could walk in and see us!"

Shizune could just hear the bed creaking as if another weight had settled down on it.

"Wha….? Mmmf!" Then the bed creaked again, perhaps from Kakashi sitting back away from Iruka, she wasn't sure.

"Let 'em look." A muffled 'wump' echoed around the room, and Shizune just couldn't hold in her curiosity any longer. She opened the door a crack and peered in.

Iruka was back in Kakashi's arms, looking frantic and embarrassed and pushing half-heartedly at the jounin's embrace. "You?…What?"

Kakashi nuzzled his head into the side of Iruka's neck. "Mmmm. This is nice."

"Yeah, it is." Iruka was, of course, blushing furiously, but even so, he nestled himself deeper into Kakashi's arms.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

AN: Makoto means truth or sincerity. Thought it was a nice pair with Hisoka meaning 'secret.'

The end!

Wow. That turned out to be a lot longer that I ever expected it to be, but I know at least a few people are enjoying it. I hope everyone who's been following this is happy with the ending.

Thanks so much to everyone for reviewing and reading, this has been a lot of fun to write!

And just as a offer to people out there. If anyone has any requests/challenges, I'm happy to try and write something. I can write on Naruto (obviously), Bleach, Death Note, FMA, and xxxHolic, and I will try to write any pairing.

Alright, I think I finally have nothing more to say!

Sunlight through Leaves


End file.
